Capitol Grand South Yarra will be home to the first standalone David Jones Food store when the department-store chain unveils its premium convenience format in the luxury development in 2019.

The 500sqm store will have prime position in the Capitol Grand retail precinct on Chapel Street in the inner Melbourne suburb and is promoted as promising to deliver “a premium retail food offering with an emphasis on convenience and quality to suit the discerning local customer”.

“We know that when it comes to food our customers want us to provide provenance, freshness and convenience, but also that our offering needs to be accessible to their busy lives,” David Jones CEO David Thomas said.

“Melbourne’s Capitol Grand will be the perfect home for David Jones Food with a natural brand alignment and a shared vision to provide a world-class experience to our customers. The calibre and location of the Capitol Grand development enables us to deliver our new format in an outstanding position and we are confident the new David Jones Food proposition will resonate strongly with the local customer, delivering a new level of food quality and experience to the area.”

The new-format store is designed to cater to the busy lifestyles of the area’s residents with an emphasis on fresh premium produce, including prepacked meat and seafood and a comprehensive convenience selection comprising preprepared vegetables, salads and fruit as well as restaurant-quality ready meals.

The majority of product, including 90 per cent of the store’s fresh offering, will be under the department store’s own new premium David Jones Food label, which was launched earlier this year and is said to deliver best-in-class products across a range of categories. Also included under the David Jones Food brand are grocery products ranging from ice-cream and confectionery to stir-fry sauces and herbs and spices. These will be complemented by a curated range brands, many of which are exclusive to David Jones.

David Jones says the store opening will create about 30 new roles, including specialist positions across a range of food categories.

The standalone food store is the latest concept to be announced as part of David Jones’ rollout of its premium food offering, which began with the opening of a flagship Food Hall at its Bondi Junction store in Sydney and the launch of its own premium food brand, David Jones Food, in August 2017. Last October it unveiled its first smaller David Jones Food concept at Wollongong and announced it would open a similar food-retail concept in the David Jones store in Melbourne’s Malvern Central shopping centre in March this year. The retailer plans to open several standalone food stores in the coming years.